Update: Widgetized October Special WordPress theme

November 5th, 2006

October Special, previously recognized as the Pink October WordPress theme released early last month, is a widgetized release which allows users to manipulate sidebar content – both top and bottom – using convenient drag ‘n drop “widgets” within the Presentations Dashboard preferences pane.

About & Legal

Although there are no monetary requirements needed in order to utilize the October Special, I reserve the right to request that any credits concerning the theme origin be retained and that any distributions of the theme be limited to 5thirtyone.com (unless otherwise agreed upon – contact me). The only motivation for this request is due to my attempt to control officially updated revisions.

Download

October Special was created as a modified version of the original Pink October theme – designed to be a lean, mean, database light WordPress theme with a considerable number of advertising placement opportunities.

5ThirtyOne October Special

3/20/2007: Still having issues with the recent comments / posts widgets included with the official Widgets plugin? Danny has recommendations for everyone.

3/3/2007: Due to a WordPress widget issue, individuals electing to make use of the recent comments widget will discover that comments under individual posts will render incorrectly. Fortunately, Ben found a workaround with the code included in his comment.

11/14/06: October Special update with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) by Niel Patel of Pronet Advertising. Review the included README for additional details.

11/13/06: Reset the archived posts loop. – Thanks Sean

11/5/06: Initial widgetized modification of the Pink October release.

Changes from Pink October: There have been a number of minor HTML/CSS tweaks since the October 8th release. I encourage current Pink October users to download the modified release.

Questions

It’s November, why is this theme called October Special? – The release is a modified version of the Pink October theme released for the Pink for October web initiative.

How do I enable widgets on my WordPress install? – In order to use the widget enhancements, you’ll need to install the Automattic Widgets plugin found here.

I don’t want to use widgets, can I still use this theme? – Yes. The theme can be used by those who opt to run plain vanilla without widgets. The default content displayed in the sidebars will be visible – elements for an introductory paragraph, RSS feeds, and search.

Important Notes

At this time, I’ve elected to enforce a static search element towards the bottom of the theme in the archived data / comments area.

Niel Patel of Pronet Advertising is currently mulling over the code in order to improve this lightweight theme into maximize SEO (Search Engine Optimization). – Completed

The Flickr widget is unstyled. I was not able to get the widget to load properly during tests. Additionally, the standard “links” widget is also unstyled.

If a widget offers the option to add a title, I encourage you to do so less you feel the urge to have cramped horizontal lines for listed elements.